Friday, July 30, 2004

Fault zone poses $3B threat to Miss., Ole Miss study says

Link - A university report suggests an earthquake along the southern end of the New Madrid Seismic Zone could cause more than $3 billion in damage in Mississippi. Over a third of the damage would be in DeSoto County, which borders Memphis.

The New Madrid Fault Zone includes Mississippi, Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. The White River Fault Zone also passes through DeSoto County and runs through northwest Mississippi into Arkansas. That fault is associated with the earthquake at Courland in 1999 and Mississippi's greatest earthquake in Charleston in 1931.